The American Retirement Advisor
Retirement should feel like freedom, not a puzzle. The American Retirement Advisor is your daily dose of straight talk on the three decisions that shape every retirement: your healthcare, your income, and your inheritance plan.
Each episode is a short, focused read of our latest article, drawn from real conversations with real families at American Retirement Advisors in Scottsdale, Arizona. No jargon. No sales pitch. Just the kind of advice you'd want from a trusted friend who happens to do this for a living.
Hosted by Ian Schaeffer, author of Medicare Made 123Easy, COO of ARA, and founder of 123Easy Studios. Articles read by Betty.
American Retirement Advisors has served over 14,900 families since 2001. Featured in Forbes, a 4-time America's Select Financial Advisors honoree, a 3-time Inc. 500, and a Nextdoor Neighborhood Favorite.
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Read the full articles at https://news.americanretirementadvisors.com/
Episodes
142 episodes
The Lobster Roll Trail, Part 2: Cash Only in Harpswell, Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain
Part 2 of our weekend break from the serious stuff. A no-mayo roll at the end of a peninsula where they only take cash, a bench in Camden harbor where the masts sing, and a 3:30 AM alarm on Cadillac Mountain. Plus the question this whole trip i...
The Lobster Roll Trail, Part 1: Plum Island to Kennebunkport
We spent all week on The Widow's Penalty, and it was heavy for a reason. This weekend we are taking a break and doing something fun: a two-day road trip up the New England coast, one lobster roll at a time. Part 1 runs from a comeback-story sha...
What to Do Financially When Your Spouse Dies: The First 90 Days
She started over from zero and built a seven-figure retirement on her own. Most survivors never need to do that, because most of what goes wrong in the year after a loss is preventable with a calm list and the right order. The finale of The Wid...
Inherited IRA Rules, Step-Up in Basis, and What Your Kids Actually Receive When Everything Passes to Them
Seven rental properties, one grieving widow, and no structure holding any of it. Part four of The Widow's Penalty is about the handoff: the inherited IRA rules that changed for your children, the tax break Arizona and Nevada families get that m...
Widowed at 75: How to Appeal a Medicare IRMAA Surcharge After the Death of a Spouse
Two years after a loss, a letter from Social Security can raise a widow's Medicare premium based on income from a life that no longer exists. There is a one-page form built for exactly this moment, and most people have never heard its name. Par...
Widowed in Your 60s: The Qualifying Surviving Spouse Tax Status and the Social Security Choice Almost Everyone Gets to Make
The sixties are when the widow's penalty does most of its quiet work. A tax filing status with a two-year clock. A first April filing alone. And a Social Security decision with two checks on the table, where the order you claim them in can be w...
Widowed at 55: What Happens to Social Security, Health Coverage, and the Plan You Built Together
Losing a spouse in your fifties comes with a rulebook most people never open until they need it. Survivor benefits that cannot start until 60. A remarriage rule with a hard birthday attached. A ten-year wait for Medicare. This week we walk the ...
Passing On the House: Step-Up in Basis, Gifting Rules, and the Estate Tax Most Families Will Not Pay
Give the kids the house now, or leave it to them later? The tax code treats those two acts completely differently, and the difference can be worth six figures. The finale of The Fourth Color: step-up in basis, the gifting rules that surprise mo...
The Tax Bill Hiding in Your House: Capital Gains on a Home Sale After 65
Many sellers still believe there is a special capital gains break once you turn 65. There is not, and the rule that replaced it has not grown in almost thirty years while home values have. Part two of The Fourth Color: what the sale really cost...
The Fourth Color: When Real Estate Is Part of Your Retirement Income
Green, yellow, red. For years those three colors of money covered nearly everything. But for more retirees than ever, the biggest asset on the balance sheet is a house or a rental, and it plays by its own rules. Part one of a new three-part ser...
Putting It All Together: A Tax-Smart Way to Draw Your Retirement Paycheck
The window, the conversions, IRMAA, the Social Security surprise: they all run on one number, your taxable income. Here is how to pull them into a single plan, and the one reason couples should not wait. The finale of The Gap Years.
The Social Security Tax Surprise: How Much of Your Benefit Is Taxable
Most retirees are surprised to learn their own Social Security can be taxed, and that up to 85 percent of the benefit can land in their taxable income. Here is how it works, and the new-law confusion to clear up. Part four of The Gap Years....
Meet IRMAA: The Medicare Surcharge With a Two-Year Memory
IRMAA is the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, a surcharge that raises your Medicare premium based on income from two years ago. Here is how it works, and how a smart year can quietly trigger it. Part three of The Gap Years.
Filling the Bracket: The Roth Conversion Window Before Age 73
During the gap years your tax bracket has room in it. A Roth conversion lets you fill that room on purpose, paying tax at today's low rate instead of tomorrow's forced one. Part two of The Gap Years.Read the full article:
The Gap Years: Often the Lowest-Tax Window of Your Life
The years between your last paycheck and age 73 are often the lowest-tax stretch you will ever see. Most retirees coast through and pay for it later. Part one of The Gap Years.Read the full article:
The Family Bank: Setting Up the Next Generation While It's Cheap
A policy on a young child or grandchild can lock in lifelong insurability and quietly build a pool the next generation can borrow against. Here is how the family bank works, and the honest catch. The finale of More Than a Death Benefit.<...
Your Own Life Insurance Could Be Adding to Your Tax Bill
A life insurance policy you own is counted in your taxable estate, which can quietly add to the very tax bill you hoped to cover. A special kind of trust is the fix. Part six of More Than a Death Benefit.Read the full article:
The Nine-Month Problem That Forces Families to Sell What They Love
When a large estate owes federal tax, the bill is due in cash within nine months, and the extension to file is not an extension to pay. Here is how life insurance keeps families from a fire sale. Part five of More Than a Death Benefit.
The Tax-Free Bucket Most Retirees Are Missing
Most people retire with nearly all their savings in accounts the government still gets to tax. Life insurance can quietly build a third bucket that it does not. Part four of More Than a Death Benefit.Read the full article:
The Policy That Helps You While You're Alive
Almost 70 percent of people turning 65 will need long-term care, and Medicare will not cover most of it. Some life insurance can step in while you are still living. Part three of More Than a Death Benefit.Read the full article:
Be Your Own Bank: The Cash Value Most People Never Touch
Some life insurance quietly builds a pool of money you can borrow against, tax-advantaged, for anything you want. Here is how cash value actually works, and the honest truth about whether it is worth it. Part two of More Than a Death Benefit.
The Inheritance That Has Nothing to Do With Money
A Father's Day reflection on the most valuable thing my dad ever gave me, which was never going to show up on any account statement.Read the full article:
Do I Need Life Insurance in Retirement? (An Honest Answer)
The honest answer is: it depends on the job you need it to do, and for some people it is no. Here is how to tell which side you are on. The first in our series, More Than a Death Benefit.Read the full article: